1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mounting a card-like information recording medium, which is for use in information recording/reproducing apparatus in which a card-like information recording medium, such as an optical card and optomagnetic card, is relatively moved with respect to an information recording/reproducing head in a reciprocal manner to record information on the card-like recording medium and/or reproduce information therefrom.
2) Prior Art Statement
In recent years, an information industry has developed remarkably, and therefore, the amount of information dealt with by the information industry is increasing more and more. Under such conditions, the card-like information recording medium is widely used in the information industry since a great amount of information can be brought with the card-like information recording medium, such as the optical card and the optomagnetic card.
In the information recording/reproducing apparatus, in which the card-like information recording medium is used, it is desired to provide a mechanism for correcting a warp of the card-like information recording medium in the apparatus for mounting the card-like information recording medium (hereinafter the apparatus will be referred to as "shuttle") arranged in the information recording/reproducing apparatus. Because the card-like information recording medium, such as an optical card or an optomagnetic card, is always brought by users, it is often warped. Additionally, the mechanism for correcting the warp of the card should be arranged in the shuttle such that a condition for holding the card can be released when the card is inserted into the shuttle and removed therefrom, in order to decrease a load of a loading motor, by which the card is inserted into the shuttle and removed therefrom, and to prevent any abrasion of the card.
FIGS. 1 to 3 are schematic views showing a construction of a conventional shuttle; FIG. 1 is a plan view of the shuttle, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view showing a condition that a card 1 is mounted in the shuttle, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side views showing a condition that the card 1 has been removed from the shuttle and a holding means for holding the card 1 is released.
The conventional shuttle shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 comprises a base 2; counter members 3a and 3b; a plate member 4 which is arranged on the base 2 via an elastic member 5 and urged against the optical card 1 held between the plate member 4 and the counter members 3a and 3b by means of the elastic member 5; said plate member 4 comprises a lever 6 which serves to lift down the plate member 4 by means of a pin 8, which is arranged in the shuttle to be engaged with the plate member 4, when the card 1 is inserted into and removed from the shuttle; elastic members 7a and 7b arranged on one of side walls of the base 2, and the card 1 is urged against the other side wall of the base 2 thereby, so that the position of the card 1 is determined in a width direction of the card 1. When card 1 is inserted into the shuttle, the card 1 is put between the plate member 4 and the counter members 3a and 3b and is urged against the counter members 3a and 3b by the elastic member 5 via the plate member 4. It should be noted that the counter members 3a and 3b are arranged so as not to be made contact with an optical information recording area of the optical card 1 in order to prevent that the optical information recording area of the card is harmed by the counter members.
In the conventional shuttle, when the optical card 1 is inserted into and removed from the shuttle, the lever 6 is lifted down by means of the pin 8 against a force of the elastic member 5. By the movement of the lever 6, the plate member 4 is lifted down to be inclined with respect to the counter members 3a and 3b, so that the resistance generated on the optical card 1 is decreased when the optical card is inserted into and removed from the shuttle; thereafter the card 1 is fed into and from the shuttle smoothly by rotating a roller 9, which is driven by a loading motor (not shown). And, after the optical card 1 is mounted on the shuttle perfectly, the optical card 1 is urged against the counter members 3a and 3b by the plate member 4, which is supported by the elastic member 5, to be held between the counter members 3a and 3b and the plate member 4 in a tight manner; and thus the warp of the optical card is corrected by the counter members 3a and 3b and the plate member 4.
However, in the conventional shuttle, since the plate member 4 comprise the lever 6 and the lever 6 is arranged to be projected beyond a range between which the card is reciprocally moved with respect to an optical head (not shown) in order to record/reproduce information on/from the card, there is a drawback that the whole length of the shuttle should become long, and thus the information recording/reproducing apparatus as a whole could not be made compact.
Further, there is another drawback that when the shuttle is driven out of control, there is a possibility that the lever 6 collides against the engage pin 8 and they are destroyed. Furthermore, when the shuttle is driven out of control and the lever 6 collides against the engaged pin 8, the plate member 4 is lifted down and the card would not be held in the shuttle so tightly, therefore the card 1 would jump out from the shuttle.
In order to prevent the above-mentioned drawbacks, it can be considered that the engaged pin 8 is arranged so as to be projected only when the card 1 is being inserted into and being removed from the shuttle. However, if the pin 8 is arranged so, another power source for driving the pin 8 would be necessary and thus the cost therefor would be increased.
On the other hand, in the conventional shuttle, when the card 1 is inserted into and removed from the shuttle, the plate member 4 is lifted down, so that resistance generated between the card 1 and the counter members 3a and 3b and resistance between the card 1 and the plate member 4 are decreased to some degree. However, when the card 1 is positioned more inside than the position shown in FIG. 4, in other words, under the condition that a half or more of the card is left between the counter members 3a and 3b and the plate member 4, the effect that the resistances are decreased to some degree could not be obtained longer only by lifting down the plate members 4. Because although the plate member is lifted down, the distance between the plate member 4 and the counter members 3a and 3b is smaller than the thickness of the card 1 in the right half portion of the shuttle. Therefore, there is a drawback is that it does not prevent the increase of the load of the loading motor for driving the roller 9 and the abrasion of the card in an effective manner.
Furthermore, in order to mount the card 1 on a predetermined position of the shuttle, it is necessary to make a pressing force of the elastic members 7a and 7b against the card 1 larger than the friction generated between the card 1 and the counter members 3a and 3b and between the card 1 and the plate member 6. Therefore, the card 1 is pressed so much in the width direction by the elastic members 7a and 7b that the flatness of the card 1 cannot thereby be maintained.
In order to solve this problem, the present applicant discloses improvements of shuttle in Japanese Patent Preliminarily Publication Tokkai-Hei 2-144686. One of the improvements is shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 in which the elastic member 10 for urging the plate member 4 against the card 1 is arranged such that the plate member 4 is parallelly deviated in a vertical direction more than the thickness of the card 1 with respect to the counter members 3a and 3b. And the other improvement is illustrated in FIG. 8 in which the plate member 4 is held on the base 2 via a link mechanism 11 and urged against the count members 3a and 3b by means of a coil spring 12; so that the plate member 4 can be parallelly deviated in a vertical direction more than the thickness of the card 1 with respect to the count members 3a and 3b, as well as the first improvement.
It should be noted that FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the first improvement of the shuttle and FIGS. 6 and 7 are cross sectional side views thereof; FIG. 8 is a cross sectional side view depicting the second improvement of the shuttle.
In such constructions of the shuttle shown in FIGS. 5 to 8, since the plate member 4 can be lifted down more than the thickness of the card 1 when the card 1 is inserted into and removed from the shuttle by rotating the roller 9, it is possible to prevent the increase of the load in the loading motor and the abrasion of the card 1.
However, in accordance with the experiments conducted by the present inventors, it is proved that some points to be improved still remains in the shuttles explained in the above. That is to say, in the first improvement of the shuttle shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, there is a drawback that the elastic member 10 is sometimes bent to a non-desired direction due to the dimensional accuracy or the mounting accuracy of the elastic member 10 and due to the direction toward which the lever 6 is lifted down. Further, in the shuttle illustrated in FIG. 8, since there is provided the link mechanism 11 in addition to the coil spring 12, the weight of the shuttle as a whole becomes so heavy that the load which acts on a driving motor for driving the shuttle is increased.